Si nous avions eu un chien.......

Question

If we had a dog, is same as.. if we were to have a dog, which would seem to be imperfect, not passé composé. You have trained us to use imperfect in this situation: Si nous avions un chien.......

Grégoire

Accepted Answer

Hi Gregory,
I think you are mixing up your tenses.
 avions eu is the plus-que-parfait  and not the passé composé
Take a look at the following examples:

If we had a dog we would be happy = Si nous avions un chien nous serions heureux
imparfait ----> conditionnel présent 
If we had had a dog we would have been happy = Si nous avions eu un chien nous aurions été heureux
Plus que parfait ( pluperfect) ------> conditionnel passé

To convey if we were to do something you would have to use the verb devoir à l'imparfait -
Si nous devions avoir un chien, nous aurions un Labrador = If we were to have dog we would have a Labrador
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi Gregory,"Si nous avions eu un chien....."    I understand this as   "If we had had a dog .. "So this would be a completed state of affairs  --  Plus-que-parfait (perfect in the past)Hope this helps.Jim